Sports ministry to launch talent search portal

The Union Sports Ministry will launch a portal to search for young talent in different Olympic disciplines, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel said here on Saturday.

In an interaction with the media here, Goel said that when he came across a case where a young talented sportsperson was denied entry to a stadium on the ground that the facility was used only by established players, he said he immediately ordered the setting up of a sports ministry talent search portal.

"The English and Hindi versions of the portal are ready and will be launched soon while other language versions are also being developed," he said.

"Now, any child with talent of eight years and above can post his or her video on the portal showcasing the talent along with a bio-data," he said.

"It will be our duty to pick that young talented sportsperson," he said, while pointing out that the talent shown should be in any of the Olympic disciplines.

Talking about development of sports in the country in general, Goel said different disciplines were being run by different federations.

"We have ended all conflict between the ministry and the federations," he said.

"We have also ended infighting within various federations and we want transparency and accountability from them."

Given Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interest, Goel said the focus of his ministry would be mostly on the northeastern states with Assam as the sporting hub.

He said that Guwahati, Golaghat, Kokrajhar and Tinsukia in Assam already have sports hostels with extension centres in Dibrugarh, Majuli and Jorhat.

Other northeastern states to have sports hostels are Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.

Goel also said that his ministry has financially helped the boxing academies of M.C. Mary Kom and Sarita Devi in Manipur.

Regarding the National Sports University in Manipur announced during the 2014-15 Union Budget, he said that land allotted by the earlier state government was found to be very low lying and far away from the city of Imphal.

"However, we have now finalised a plot of land (at Koutruk village) that is closer to the city," he said

"We are taking a lot of inputs from Australia for the sports university in Manipur."

Goel will be visiting Guwahati on May 23 where he, accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, will inspect the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, one of the venues of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be hosted by India in October this year.